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Review:

Toujours Padfoot says:I CANNOT POSSIBLY CONVEY THE EXTENT OF THE EXCITEMENT I FELT WHEN I SAW THE CHAPTER TITLE AND KNEW WHAT THIS ONE WAS GOING TO BE ABOUT. ♥

And I was planning on talking about Peter and his motives but now you just threw me for a loop with adding Severus there at the end, and now that's all I can think about. And now my mind is going insane, because Severus expressly mentioned Beth. What's that going to look like once Peter's had the time to think it over? It's going to look like Severus thinks about Beth and could possibly be communicating with her, which certainly wouldn't go over well with Sirius. And now that Severus has seen him there, he'll be asking questions to find out what Peter's doing, and that leads us to Severus having information about Peter that would horrify Beth, and Peter having information about Beth that could put her in a very compromising position with the Order. If Peter's smarter than he looks, this means that he's got leverage on Beth, which could potentially keep her quiet if Severus told her things about Peter. I AM REELING. I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN, WHAT IS GOING ON, I AM JUST MADNESS. MADNESS IN MY BRAIN.

Like. sdfjsjfsdjf. I think everyone's got their own little headcanon of how Peter strays, and going into this chapter I was curious about what your headcanon of that looked like, and I'm finding that your headcanon definitely trumps mine and has replaced it. I loved the setting, how creepy it was - and the stairs made out of crates - and Alecto radiating all sorts of bad vibes and Amycus just hovering outside the door. And if I had to have a conversation with Roark I would probably throw up, just saying, because that man is sdjdjf. *shudder*

I very much appreciate all of the thought that clearly went into this, as you didn't take any direct or obvious routes. You didn't have Peter run up to talk to Voldemort personally, where he would then be immediately branded with the Dark Mark. You also didn't make him completely evil - you outlined his reasoning for switching sides very well and heightened his anxiety with every step he took, especially after it became too late to change anything. Really, Peter should have realized the second he talked to Macnair (that's who it was, wasn't it? At the Ministry?) that from that moment on, changing his mind was not an option. At the end of the chapter when he turned into a rat and was fumbling around, having to try everything twice, and vomiting, it showed a very human side of Peter that we don't often get to see in fan fiction.

I feel ridiculously giddy about a Pettigrew chapter, what is wrong with me. But seriously, this was absolutely awesome. Getting this glimpse of the other side, just a flash of how they operate, what their conditions are, the climate of emotions, and it's just so...mysterious. He's at the very bottom of the seedy underbelly, too low to be really noticed, so very easy to kill should he give anyone the reason to. I got the feeling while reading this that the Death Eater circle isn't really a circle at all - but a ladder. And the higher up you go on it, the more you realize that you don't really know what is going on, that it's more complex and complicated than they'd previously imagined when they were all the way on Rung Number One, where all of the top rungs were still immersed in shadow. And there are people on all different levels who don't even know of the others' existence, and they're basically just drones working on one small scale, keeping their heads down, not questioning. People inside could be killed all the time and others within the operation might not even know because it's set up that way, like a weird maze with many, many different operations and you only see into your own and if you're lucky, the barest glimpse of another, and gah.

I am wondering if this is making any sense to you.

But anyway, this was really enlightening for me, shining a whole new light on it. I'm now wondering exactly which rung Severus is on.

AWESOME QUOTES TIME:

It meant that you were the weak one, in many ways, and he knew exactly what happened to the weak ones in those sorts of circumstance. And Peter knew he was one of the weakest.
- Summed up perfectly.

A ring on his thumb caught the cracks of light that managed to slip through the grime on the solitary, high-up window.
- Excuse me while I go roll around in a pile of jelly. I love that imagery.

♥

MOAR

Author's Response: I KNOW YOU HAD BEEN WAITING FOR THIS PARTICULAR CHAPTER. ♥

Girl, please, Snape is ALWAYS a good addition to any story. I actually forgot to write that portion in the initial draft of this chapter, and then got a couple of chapters further along and remembered this, so had to go back and include it. Boo. BUT I am so, so happy you liked his appearance! It's another representation of the sort of catch-22 game both Beth and Severus are playing: Can't keep secrets, can't tell each other anything. Lots of speculation for youuu!

I'm so massively happy you thought this version of events was a good one, too (although you flatter me), because I don't think I'd ever given Peter's betrayal a /serious/ amount of thought until I needed to write it down, you know? Of course he betrays, and of course he sucks, but... how? What leads him to that point? And when you take it from an almost isolationist point of view -- him against the world -- it's not too much of a stretch to make. So that's the approach I used, and I myself am quite happy with it. So hearing you liked it too is EEE.EEE.EEE etc. ♥

I love your ladder metaphor too, because although I've never put it into those specific terms, that is /exactly/ how I see it! You never know more than the people above you want you to know, and they don't know more than the people above them, ad infinitum. This chapter is almost like the embodiment of how I see the story as a whole, sort of mysterious in a not-good way, and dark, and a bit creepy. I always sort of hate it when people write Death Eaters as confabbing with Voldy personally. Like... no, he thought loads of people were scum. That's like saying that every Catholic priest rubs elbows with the Pope. (No idea where that analogy came from, but I'm fond of it.) Just doesn't happen.

YOU ARE TOO GOOD TO ME ~ Every time I go to post a new chapter, I get nervous about your reaction to it. True story. And you /never/ disappoint. :3 THANK YOU TO INFINITY AND BEYOND!!!